Molded clasp for slide fasteners

ABSTRACT

A MOLDED HOOK AND EYE CLASP AND METHOD OF MAKING THE SAME FOR A SLIDE FASTENER WHICH INCLUDES A SERIES OF INTERENGAGABLE FASTENER ELEMENTS CARRIED AT THE OPPOSED MARGINAL EDGES OF A PAIR OF TAPES. AT GAPPED PORTIONS OF THE SLIDE FASTENER CHAIN, A HOOK MEMBER, AN EYE MEMBER, TOP STOPS AND A BOTTOM STOP FOR SUCCESSIVE SLIDE FASTENERS ARE FORMED, WITH THE BEADED EDGES OF THE TAPES INTERMEDIATE THE HOOK AND EYE MEMBERS AND THEIR RESPECTIVE TOP STOPS BEING IMPREGNATED WITH MOLD MATERIAL TO PROVIDE A STIFFENED BUT PLIABLE SECTION FOR SUPPORTING THE SAME. AFTER THE MOLD PRODUCT IS REMOVED AND THE FASTENER IS IN THE CLOSED POSITION, THE IMPREGNATED BEADED EDGES TEND TO BE SPLAYED APART WHEN THE SLIDE OF THE SLIDE FASTENER IS IN THE CLOSED POSITION. NOW, WHEN THE HOOK AND EYE MEMBERS ARE ENGAGED, THEY ACT AGAINST THE FORCES TENDING TO SPLAY THE TAPES APART, AND THE FREE ENDS OF THE TAPES OF THE FASTENER WILL LIE SUBSTANTIALLY PARALLEL TO EACH OTHER.

P 20, 1971 A CARLJLE MOLDED CLASP FOR SLIDE FASTENERS Filed March 10, 1969 INVENTOR. flLF/QED CHI/L ILE kfifl a M A TTORNEYS.

United States Patent US. Cl. 24-20511 7 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A molded hook and eye clasp and method of making the same for a slide fastener which includes a series of interengagable fastener elements carried at the opposed marginal edges of a pair of tapes. At gapped portions of the slide fastener chain, a hook member, an eye member, top stops and a bottom stop for successive slide fasteners are formed, with the beaded edges of the tapes intermediate the hook and eye members and their respective top stops being impregnated with mold material to provide a stiffened but pliable section for supporting the same. After the mold product is removed and the fastener is in the closed position, the impregnated beaded edges tend to be splayed apart when the slider of the slide fastener is in the closed position. Now, when the hook and eye members are engaged, they act against the forces tending to splay the tapes apart, and the free ends of the tapes of the fastener will lie substantially parallel to each other.

This invention relates to slide fasteners and, more particularly, to a slide fastener which greatly improves the appearance of the garment to which it is applied.

It is the practice in wearing apparel, and particularly womens garments, to utilize a slide fastener for drawing together the edges of an opening in a garment. Generally, the extreme end portions of the fastener tapes, which are free of interlocking slide fastener elements, are not brought together to lie in the desired side-by-side manner when the slider member is in the fully closed position. Rather, the tapes tend to separate or gap, and form an opening at the extreme end portions of the tapes, which is unseemly and greatly detracts from the smooth and neat contour of the garment. Where the application is one in which a portion of the garment overlaps the fastener, a large gap or bulge of the tapes cannot be readily covered by the normal overlap.

Generally, it is common to attach a hook and eye to the body of the garment above the free ends of the slide fastener for the purpose of eliminating tape separation and gapping. In practice, however, a hook and eye is not Wholly satisfactory because it is difficult and expensive to properly position and sew the same to the garment; and once sewn to the garment, it does not necessarily assure that the overlap of the garment will lie fiat and effectively conceal the fastener as well as the hook and eye.

In the prior art, as shown in US. Pats. Nos. 2,818,625; and 3,287,779, a metal fabricated hook and eye has been assembled to the fastener with the supporting members of each clinched to the beaded edges of the fastener tapes. Because both the hook and the eye project outwardly from opposed edges of the tapes, the physical dimensions of the resulting configuration often prevents the beaded edges of the tapes from being drawn together to lie in substantially parallel relation to each other. Also, hook and eye members sewn to the tapes as shown in US. Pat. No. 2,962,725 does not permit the overlap of the garment to lie fiat over the slide fastener, thereby exposing the slide fastener as well as the hook and eye.

Further, hooks and eyes applied in the manner de- 3,605,208 Patented Sept. 20, 1971 scribed above' generally are of a relatively large size that greatly detracts from the desired appearance of the garment.

It is to an improved slide fastener construction and to a method of manufacturing the same that the present invention relates wherein the general object of this invention is to provide a cooperable hook and eye closure combination located on the opposed marginal edges of the tapes.

Another object of this invention is to provide an improved hook and eye closure attached to the carrying tapes during the construction of the slide fastener.

A further object of this invention is to provide a simple, inexpensive hook and eye closure which permits the overlap of garment to lie flat and which prevents the upper ends of the tapes from separating.

Still another object of this invention is to provide a hook and eye closure for a slide fastener in which the eye member is formed from the edge of one of the tapes.

Other objects and a fuller understanding of the principle of this invention can be had by refering to the following description and claims taken in conjunction with the drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a plan view of a fragment of a length of gapped slide fastener chain;

FIG. 2 is a view similar to FIG. 1 showing the top and bottom stops as well as the hook and eye members in place on the stringer tapes;

FIG. 3 is a partial plan view of a finished open end slide fastener of this invention;

FIG. 4 is an enlarged plan view of the finished fastener shown in FIG. 3 with the hook and eye members engaged; and,

FIG. 5 is a partial sectional view taken along the lines 55 of FIG. 4.

Referring to FIGS. 1 to 3 of the drawings, there is shown a length of slide fastener chain 10 of the continuous filament type which is generally supplied in rolls to the operator for the finishing operations. Each length of slide fastener chain '10 comprises a pair of continuous length stringer tapes 12 with each having a continuous length of filament 14 secured to the beaded edge 16 thereof. Filament 14 is deformed to provide a continuous series of spaced apart interlocking fastener elements 18 attached to the opposed beaded edges 16 of tapes 12. The filamentary configuration shown in the drawings is of the helical coil type, although the invention is also applicable to a ladder type filamentary configuration such as is shown in US. Reissue Patent No. 26 ,086, At predetermined intervals, a given number of interlocking fastener elements 18 are removed from slide fastener chain 10 to form an element free gap portion 202 At this time a slider member 22 can be fitted to the stringer tapes for the purpose of engaging and disengaging fastener elements 18 in a well known manner.

To make individual slide fasteners of the desired length, in accordance with the present invention, gap portion 20 of continuous fastener chain 10 is indexed and positioned within a mold device (not shown), with the beaded edges 16 of gap portion 20 of stringer tapes 12 spread apart substantially in the manner as shown in FIG. 2. A molten plastic material is injected into the mold, cooled, and the mold separated to leave the mold product 24, as best shown in FIG. 2. Mold product 24 includes a sprue 26 as well as two elongated runners 28 and 30 of plastic material. Bottom stop 32 for one slide fastener is located at the extreme end of runner 28. Runner 30 is bifurcated at its lower end with each arm of the bifurcated portion extending laterally towards opposed beaded edges 16 of stringer tapes 12. One arm of the bifurcated portion acts as a gate for a hook member 34 having a support portion 36 overlying the margins of tape 12 with hook member 34 located substantially symmetrical of tape 12. In addition, the plastic material is directed along beaded edge 16 to form a plastic runner 38 which surrounds and partially impregnates beaded edge 16. Runner 38 extends from hook member 34 to a top stop 40 of the fastener with runner 38 providing a pliable but relatively firm section to support beaded edge 16 and the marginal edges of tape 12 located adjacent thereto.

The other arm of the bifurcated portion terminates in an eye member 42 that is of a D shape in plan. Substantially a mirror image of eye member 42 is formed on the lower surface of tape 12, whereby in the formation thereof, the injected plastic material impregnates the voids in the tape fabric and becomes substantially a unitary mass of plastic material whose outline on the top and bottom surfaces of the tape has the form of the letter D. The shank or bridge 44 of eye 42 is plastic which surrounds beaded edge 16 resulting in a tough substantially cylindrical member interconnecting the upper and lower arms of eye member 42. A laterally disposed support member 46 provides added strength to eye member 42 and prevents the same from being removed from tape 12. Central portion 48 of eye member 42 is not impregnated with plastic material as it is to be cut out in a subsequent operation. A plastic runner 50 extends from eye member 42 to a second top stop 52 on stringer tape 12, which runner impregnates its beaded edge 16 to provide a pliable but relatively firm section to support beaded edge 16 and the marginal edges of tape 12 located adjacent thereto, in a manner similar to that previously disclosed with relation to runner 38. Thus both runner members 38 and 50 maintain their short lengths of beaded edges 16 of stringer tapes 12 in a relatively firm, but pliable condition.

As best shown in FIG. 3, a cutting operation trims mold product 24 from the slide fastener chain while simultaneously severing the chain intermediate hook 34 and eye 42 and bottom stop 32. At the same time central portion 48 of eye member 42 is cut out. This cutting and severing operation can be performed in a punch press using a die member which positively locates mold product 24 and stringer tapes 12 therein, whereby mold product 24 can be quickly and accurately removed and individual fasteners manufactured.

In operation, as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, the finished hook member 34 and eye member 42 can now be operatively engaged to draw stringer tapes 12 together, whereby beaded edges 16 located above hook and eye members 34 and 42, respectively, will be drawn together and maintained in substantially parallel relation to each other.

Runners 38 and 50, while they end to maintain tapes 12 in a given condition, have some flexibility so that each can be bent towards the other when the separated hook and eye members are initially brought together. It will be observed that when slider member 22 is moved to its fully closed position, top stops 40 and 52 will be located within the throat portion of slider member 22, with runners 38 and 50 projecting out of slider member 22 and normally being splayed apart. However, once hook member 34, which has an elongated curved tongue 54, is engaged with bridge 44 of eye member 42, tapes 12 above the hook and eye members are brought together in sub stantially parallel relationship. Runners 38 and 50 tend to maintain tapes 12 in a straight line condition, which condition tends to separate or splay the same apart. Thus, engagement of hook 34 and eye 42 acts against the forces tending to splay tapes 12 apart, and these same forces will maintain hook 34 and eye 42 in its engaged condition. Because elongated curved tongue 54 wraps about bridge 44, tapes 12 can only be moved in their common plane towards each other to disengage hook 34 from bridge 44 of eye 42.

As a result of my invention, it will be seen that there is provided an improved hook and eye member, top and bottom stops and method of making the same which can be inexpensively and easily fabricated without the necessity of expensive tools or other equipment. In addition, the improved hook and eye, top stops and bottom stops are formed of a material which can easily be added to a fastener. Also, it Will be seen that there is provided a hook and eye and end stops for an open end type of slide fastener which is constructed and arranged so as to provide a maximum closing movement of the slider.

While there is shown and described an embodiment which the invention may assume in practice, it will be understood that this embodiment is merely for the pur pose of illustration and description and that other forms can be devised within the scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.

I claim:

1. In an open end slide fastener which includes:

(a) a slider member having a mouth portion and a throat portion;

(b) a pair of slide fastener stringer tapes joined at one end thereof with each tape having an edge, a plurality of interlocking fastener elements on each tape edge adapted to be engaged and disengaged in response to the movement of said slider member along said fastener elements towards the closed and open position, respectively;

(c) a bottom stop joining said tape edges at one end thereof, the improvement comprising;

(d) stop means carried on each tape edge above the uppermost fastener element defining an open end of said slide fastener opposite said one end for preventing said slider member from being removed therefrom, with those portions of each tape in and immediately above said throat portion of said slider member splayed apart when said slider member is in the fully closed position;

(e) a hook member carried on one tape above the stop means thereon and laterally projecting away from the edge of said one tape toward the other tape;

(f) eye means on said other tape above the stop means thereon and positioned for fastening cooperation with said hook member in a direction transverse to a centerline defined by movement of said slider member;

(g) said eye means including a bridge superimposed on an adjacent part of the edge of said other tape with said hook member entering said eye means and engaging said bridge to bring said tape edges into substantially parallel relation; and

(h) means extending along each tape edge above said stop means thereon exerting forces tending to maintain the said portions of each tape splayed apart whereby the same forces act to retain said hook member in an engaged condition with said bridge.

2. A slide fastener as recited in claim 1 wherein said extending means includes a runner member integrally formed on each tape edge between said stop means and the hook member on said one tape and between said stop means and the eye means on said other tape.

3. A slide fastener as recited in claim 2 wherein said bridge defines a center portion of said eye means and said hook member includes a curved tongue having an opening greater than the thickness of said center portion.

4. A slide fastener according to claim 3, wherein said curved tongue of said hook member wraps itself about said center portion of said eye means and cannot be laterally displaced.

5. A slide fastener according to claim 4, wherein said curved tongue member can be disengaged from said center portion of said eye means by movement in only one direction relative to said eye member.

6. A slide fastener according to claim 5, wherein said center portion of said eye is cylindrical in shape.

7. A slide fastener according to claim 6, wherein a reenforced edge portion surrounds said cut out portion of said eye means.

(References on following page) References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS Erdmann 24-205.11

Geissmann 24-205.11 Plavin 24--225X 5 Sinderman 24-205.11

Carlile 24205.l1F

6 FOREIGN PATENTS 1,423,000 11/1965 France 24205.11

BERNARD A. GELAK, Primary Examiner U.S. C1. X.R. 24-225 

